Jeremy Hermida

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Wise beyond his years

Hermida brings smarts, swing to the Marlins' system

By Jonathan Mayo / MLB.com Get tickets

Marlins 2002 first-round draft pick Jeremy Hermida has one of the smoothest swings in the minors.

Down on the Farm with Jeremy Hermida

Ask anyone who's seen him play, and they'll say Jeremy Hermida is professional, levelheaded, smooth-swinging, smart, mature. Sounds like a guy with 10 years under his belt in the big leagues, not a 2002 first-round draft pick playing in the South Atlantic League.

But one of the things the Florida Marlins love most about their prized outfield prospect is his "wise beyond his years" quality. It is why most predict tremendous success for Hermida, even though he's just 19 years old and playing for the Greensboro Bats. He's drawn comparisons to left-handed hitters like Paul O'Neill and Shawn Green. Hermida feels it's much too early to heap that kind of praise on him.

"It's kind of overwhelming; I'm in low-A ball right now," Hermida said. "It's an honor just to be put in the same sentence as those people.

"I still have to go out here and prove myself and work my way up to even get to the big leagues. I've got a long way to go, so to be put in the same sentence is an honor, but I'm just trying to come out here and do what I can every day."

One of Hermida's daily labors -- he would call it a labor of love -- is honing his picture-perfect swing. His swing is an original, but he has no problem "borrowing" from some current big leaguers when necessary.

"I take a little bit from Chipper Jones and a little bit from Shawn Green," Hermida said "I got the little tap step I do from Chipper Jones. If something's struggling, I'll turn on the Braves game and watch him a couple of his ABs, and see what he's doing, maybe take a little bit from that."

That may have helped Hermida at the beginning of the 2003 season, his first full year in pro ball. He hit .256 in April and just .231 in May, but then something clicked. In June and July, he exploded with a combined .347 average, four homers, 25 RBIs and 18 steals.

"I wasn't sure how to start," Hermida admitted. "I usually start the season off slow. It's not good to say that. After a little while, I took a step back and said, 'I've got a long season to go and I have put together some numbers here.' I just came up and started swinging a bit."

Of course, if watching TBS isn't enough, Hermida has other options to turn to. He's been the baseball equivalent of a "gym rat" since he was out of diapers. His swing is about as uncomplicated as there is in the game, making it easier to find and correct a glitch.

"I've been trying to analyze my swing since I was a little kid," Hermida said. "It makes it easy. I just try to keep it to a couple of basic, simple things that I know in my head and I've let the hitting coach know and he looks for, to make sure that I'm doing. As long as I'm doing those things, I should lay out a good swing."

In a worst-case scenario, Hermida's ace up his sleeve is back in Georgia, a hitting coach in the family. Hermida's father has worked with his son on his swing every step of the way, including turning him around to hit lefty when he discovered his son was a natural right-hander because he thought it important to have the stronger arm as the lead arm in his swing.

"Our hitting coach here helps me out a lot, but he's only seen my swing since the start of Spring Training," Hermida said. "If something's going wrong and I can't figure out what it is, I'll give my dad a call.

"He'll ask me a couple of questions and he'll tell me some things that I've known for a long time, but he just reiterates them, making sure they're in my head and that I'm doing them."

Typical teenager stuff, right? Hearing him talk about the science of hitting makes it clear why teammates often come to him for hitting advice. Even though Hermida is just learning the finer points of professional baseball, he enjoys this role almost as much as he loves hitting himself.

"I like to sit back and be a student of hitting sometimes when you're not playing," Hermida said. "I think most people do, just sit back and watch other people take BP, and see if they're doing anything wrong. "I'm not going to go up there and try and change somebody's swing or anything like that -- that's not my job -- but if they ask for my help, I'm going to tell them what I feel. It's kind of fun."

No wonder Marlins management has high hopes for Hermida, perhaps even more than would be placed on a high school first-rounder.

"He's all about baseball," said Jim Fleming, the Marlins' assistant general manager and vice president of player development. "There's absolutely no first-round pick in him. He comes and plays like everybody else. He's a great teammate. He's a baseball guy. He likes the game. He talks the game. He's very open to instruction and continues to get better. He still needs to get some weight and strength on him, but that just comes with age and (physical) maturity."

Both the Marlins and Hermida know that time will eventually come, and chances are, he'll move fairly quickly through the Marlins' system. Florida could use a left-handed run producer in the big leagues, but neither player nor organization is going to rush things too much.

"Hopefully, two or three years, but you never know," Hermida said. "They're taking me as I want to. I don't want to rush there. I don't want to get there and have to come back down.

"Hopefully by the time I get there I'll be there to stay. Hopefully, I'll end up in High-A or maybe Double-A next year if I progress as I hope I will. So maybe two years. That'd be nice."